The present collection unites essays and lectures on the history of economic development — mostly of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany. They came into being over the course of twenty years, as contributions to the important but at the same time difficult task of bringing the disciplines of economics and history closer together. However, the reader will notice in the selection of themes and in the manner of the treatment, that it is a matter here of historical studies produced by an economist.

In fact it was stimuli from current problems in economics which repeatedly led me to see the subject ‘in historical perspective’ and to ask whether, and what, might be learnt from history (especially in contributions 1, 5 and 11). But one does not only learn from history for the benefit of the present. One also learns from the present for the purpose of viewing history. Even at the risk of being accused of an unhistorical prejudice, I would like to acknowledge that this assumption underpins the majority of the essays in this collection. This is especially true of those essays which are concerned with conditions of growth in the nineteenth century, and of those devoted to the economic history of the Weimar Republic.